A new website was launched to promote transparency and accountability in how government funds are used across all 94 Districts in Papua New Guinea.
Community advocacy organization ACT NOW! Launched the website on Wednesday June 14, 2023 to provide the general public, officials and academics with impartial and non-partisan information on the work of each District Development Authority, with the ultimate aim of helping to improve the quality of local infrastructure and service delivery.
This year, District Development Authorities (DDAs) will be spending about K2 billion in government grants, and ACT NOW! says there is little information available to the public on how those tax payer monies being are used.
According to ACT NOW! Campaign Manager, Eddie Tanago, since the DDAs were created they have become a bit of a financial black hole. “Every year the government has poured more and more money into the Authorities but the information on how the money is spent is almost impossible to find,” Tanago stated.
Tanago added that ACT NOW! will assist in areas where departments like the Department of Implementation and Rural Development (DIRD) and the Auditor General, in tracking and verifying the spending. With the struggle of tracking and the sheer number of districts involved and lack of easy access, districts are struggling to maintain effective communication and provide access to information.
“DDA Watch will help the districts to inform their constituents about their projects, plans and spending and will allow officials to see who is doing a good job and where support might need to be targeted”, says Tanago.
Contact details for each DDA will be provided on the website including allowing authorities to make available copies of their development plans, annual budgets and acquittal and inspection reports. There will also be links to news stories concerning each DDA and its funded projects.
The website is encouraging public participation in a democratic process through social auditing. The website will allow the public to score the performance of their DDA and to submit comments and photographs on local District projects.
Each DDA will be scored and ranked according to the amount of publicly available information about its work and the views of its constituents, if its contact information are up to date and it provides copies of its current development plan, annual budget, acquittal report, a DIRD inspection report and audit report.
Each DDA will be awarded according to the satisfaction scores submitted by the public, but users will not be able to submit a rating for more than one DDA and will not be able to vote multiple times. Users identities will be kept confidential and their contact information will not be used for any other purpose.
The DDA Watch website is completely free to access and is being funded through public donations.